Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder:
a Photograph Within a Photograph
[LOVE TOKEN.]
Portrait of a woman wearing photographic jewellery. [1850s].
Ambrotype, visible image 70 x 57 mm (3 x 2¼ inches), finely hand-tinted, gilt mount with decorative border, in folding leather case with decoration embossed in blind on the upper cover, functioning gilt clasps; case rubbed.
An ambrotype portrait of a young woman with a photographic brooch at her neck depicting a man, presumably her betrothed or spouse.
The envelope in her hands may indicate their correspondence, perhaps while her lover is far away.